SACRAMENTO >> City representatives, law enforcement officials and massage industry professionals testified before the state legislature Monday in the process to develop a solution to a state massage therapy law that will sunset next year.

City governments and police departments from San Gabriel to San Francisco argued that the state law, passed in 2009, has led to an increase in massage establishments in their cities, many of which are fronts for prostitution and human trafficking.

Many argued that the California Massage Therapy Council (CAMTC) has not adequately policed or monitored businesses that are operating illegally.

“Our concerns are regarding CAMTC enforcement protocols and procedures and practice. It’s been the experience of LAPD when dealing with commercialized prostitution out of massage [parlors] that the CAMTC has been an ineffective partner and has hindered our enforcement efforts,” Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Kelly Mulldorfer said. “We acknowledge that S.B. 731 was an attempt to standardize regulations of massage establishments; our experience has shown that S.B. 731 created loopholes that have left our city ill equipped to manage and regulate massage establishments.”

The California Massage Therapy Law, or S.B. 731 passed in 2009, established the California Massage Therapy Council, a nonprofit charged with issuing voluntary permits for all massage therapists in the state. The law also prohibits cities from restricting legitimate, licensed massage parlors and technicians unless they apply the same regulations to other licensed professional businesses like a doctors or tax preparers.

Advocates on all sides presented arguments for improvement of the current law at a joint hearing of the Assembly Business, Professions and Consumer Protection Committee and the Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee Monday in Sacramento.

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Some cities, including Fontana and South Pasadena, asked that the law be allowed to sunset in 2015 to give complete regulatory control back to local cities, while others argued that having a state controlled and regulated industry, with some logistical improvements, is the most effective way to regulate the businesses and weed out bad apples.

“We know there are problems with shady businesses and we support action that can continue to professionalize massage; however, the shady businesses evoke an emotional response that is far bigger and louder than the actual impact on the communities,” said Helen McDonagh, regional developer for Massage Envy in Los Angeles. “You don’t make credit cards illegal to stop credit card fraud.”

CAMTC officials said the agency has made a concerted effort to increase its response to complaints about specific businesses as well as act proactively in preventing illegitimate operators from opening in the first place by conducting background checks on each individual and consulting all the cities where they have previously worked.

The CAMTC said it has denied more than 4,500 applications and revoked approximately 100 of the more than 45,000 licenses since its inception. The agency has also taken action against 57 massage therapy schools that were suspected of illegal practices such as allowing people to purchase completion certificates.

“I firmly believe that statewide coordination is the way to go to combat this problem,” said Michael Callagy, a CAMTC board member and former deputy police chief in San Mateo, citing the CAMTC’s database to combat human trafficking. “We can simply not go back to the hodgepodge way of dealing wit this from city to city and we absolutely need this coordination to move forward. But I do understand that we need to address land use issues in a fair and reasonable manner while also still serving the public demand for therapeutic massage.”

Both sides agreed that more regulation should be imposed on massage business owners, and CAMTC proposed that owners be asked to apply for a similar permit as massage therapists.

State legislators agreed that should the law be extended, changes should be made to increase the level of accountability for massage operators and implement a better system for eliminating or punishing those that conduct illegal activities.

“The state set out to improve the massage therapy industry with the creation of the California Massage Therapy Council in 2009, but the law that created the council has failed to keep out the bad actors and has tied the hands of cities that want to keep illicit massage businesses out of their communities,” said Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, in a statement. “We need to look at allowing this law to ‘sunset’ and replace it with something that will allow our communities to regain control over businesses who continually flout the law.”

Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla, D-Concord, said the state legislature will continue to have hearings on the issue as solutions are proposed.